Non-Partisan Delaware's candidate for Kent County Sheriff, Aarika Nelson, gave an interview to Craig Anderson of the Delaware State News last week as part of an article on the Kent County Sheriff race between the incumbent, his Republican challenger, and Ms. Nelson.
If voters choose her to serve, Ms. Nelson said she would advocate for Kent County government and the General Assembly to create an “administrative office that’s based solely on qualifications, experience and merit.”
Ms. Nelson emphasized the necessity of replacing an elected sheriff with a
merit employee of the county to perform the administrative functions of the
office. The elected office has become a tool of political gamesmanship, electing former law enforcement
officials to hire other former law enforcement officials at an elevated cost
for work that can be done by anyone. By changing hiring practices she would make the county safe from potential discrimination suits opposing the practice of imposing
additional requirements that are not backed up by any statute or regulation. This would reduce the costs of an office that has seen its profits and gross
revenue fall dramatically while costs have gone up during the tenure of the
incumbent, elected in 2018 on a platform of "fiscal responsibility". He declined to be interviewed for the piece.Ms. Nelson also committed to devoting herself to the office full time if she was elected:
According to Ms. Nelson, “I absolutely would make myself available to do this job full time (if elected) ...” she said.
This stands in contrast to the other challenger for the office, the retired Harrington Police Chief and current City Manager, who has stated his intentions to retain both taxpayer funded jobs along with his taxpayer funded pension if he were to be elected. This is an all too common practice in Delaware known as "double (or triple) dipping".
